Disappointingly unsuccessful:
— Many frustrated poets end as pipe-smoking teachers.

synonyms: defeated, disappointed, discomfited, foiled, thwarted.

Roget 732: unsuccessful, successless^†; failing, tripping etc. v.; at fault; unfortunate etc. 735.    abortive, addle, stillborn; fruitless, bootless; ineffectual, ineffective, inconsequential, trifling, nugatory; inefficient etc. (impotent) 158; insufficient etc. 640; unavailing etc. (useless) 645; of no effect.    aground, grounded, swamped, stranded, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited^†; foiled; defeated etc. 731; struck down, borne down, broken down; downtrodden; overborne, overwhelmed; all up with; ploughed, plowed, plucked.    lost, undone, ruined, broken; bankrupt etc. (not paying) 808; played out; done up, done for; dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe^†, knocked on the head; destroyed etc. 162.    frustrated, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted dashed; thrown off one's balance, thrown on one's back, thrown on one's beam ends^†; unhorsed, in a sorry plight; hard hit.    stultified, befooled^†, dished, hoist on one's own petard; victimized, sacrificed.    wide of the mark etc. (error) 495; out of one's reckoning etc. (inexpectation) 508^†; left in the lurch; thrown away etc. (wasted) 638; unattained; uncompleted etc. 730.    ... show more

Roget 832: discontented; dissatisfied etc. v.; unsatisfied, ungratified; dissident; dissentient etc. 489; malcontent, malcontented, exigent, exacting, hypercritical.    repining etc. v.; regretful etc. 833; down in the mouth etc. (dejected) 837.    in high dudgeon, in a fume, in the sulks, in the dumps, in bad humor; glum, sulky; sour as a crab; soured, sore; out of humor, out of temper.    disappointing etc. v.; unsatisfactory.    frustrated (failure) 732.    ... show more